I need some clarification--should these "ancient" cacti be ones we have owned for a long time (even if they are not neccessarily old) or old cacti that we own (maybe came into possession of an old man)? I Hope that makes sense.

Hello all.It can be read either way : Your oldest plant can be the cactus or succulent that you had under your care for very long time (I would say if the oldest one isn´t the pretiest one you could also post a nicer specimen which germinated from seed a few days later )

Your oldest plant could also be the one that you have reliable record of being the oldest.Thinking of it some genera do live longer than the average lifespan of a human (e.g. Copiapoa , Welwitschia maybe Carnegia gigantea too?).

I think both aspects would be interesting to look at in this picture contest.

Jens wrote:Nice Ariocarpus (retusus?) Ian, maybe you can estimate how old it is by comparing pictures of when you got it with this recent one.

Age is very difficult to judge. It had no roots when I got it (not any good ones anyway) and had been neglected for some time so could be a bit older than expected. Since then, given a year out to grow new roots, it has grown quite quickly which tends to happen when the taproot is removed.

It has moved on from this and even has a small pup on one side, although that it making it tilt over.

gemhunter178 wrote:Huh, I'm out of this one....my oldest ones have only been around 3-4 years.....no where close to "old"...

This does NOT disqualify you. If your oldest plant is only 6 months, post it. The contest is your oldest so post away. I think seeing the differences in collection ages is another interesting aspect of this contest.